Crisis not solved by abandoning Constitution
By W. James Antle III
web posted October 15, 2001
Crises tend to cloud judgment and impair rational thought. While
the United States has generally responded with an admirable
combination of restraint and resolve to unprecedented terrorist
attacks on its shores, it is important to remain impervious to the
voices of hysteria that inevitably can be heard during such times.
Whether one hears peace protesters reciting recycled '60s
antiwar slogans like old Janis Joplin lyrics, or the "kill 'em all"
response from armchair warriors this so frequently engenders,
perspective is important. It has become increasingly common to
refer to the terrorist attacks that provoked our current military
campaign against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan as an event
that changed America forever. The old order of the republic is
now considered outmoded and obsolete. Life will never be the
same goes the refrain.
In a sense, this is true. Six thousand fathers, mothers, brothers,
sisters, husbands, wives, friends and loved ones lost their lives.
Each one represents an irreplaceable, incalculable loss, creating
a void in perhaps millions more lives. For many of us, life will
never be the same.
Yet while it seemed unthinkable that something of this nature
would occur here in the United States of all places, and on such
a large scale at that, horror and loss of life has been a constant in
the human experience. Call it a symptom of human fallibility
recognized by philosophers for centuries, or the fallen nature of
man described in the Bible. Tragedy has always been a part of
life and an indelible part of every human civilization. The
circumstances of the various bloody battles of the Civil War, the
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001
were each unique, but the horror, pain and loss of human life
each represented are of the same kind.
This does not mean that we do not respond to such events.
Ways to make our airports and commercial air traffic more
secure should be explored and implemented. Improvements to
our military preparedness and intelligence infrastructure are
needed. More and better security may well be beneficial in
public places. The US military efforts in Afghanistan are just.
But some would like to see fundamental changes to our national
character. Whether it is derogatory references to "rugged
individualism" or concrete public policy proposals like the
national ID card, there are those who advocate changing
important aspects of American life and our perception of who
we are as a nation. While it is becoming a cliché to suggest that
this is surrendering to terrorism by accomplishing the terrorists'
goals for them, in large part this is true.
Examples abound of people reacting to our current national
security and economic problems by in effect calling for end to
our constitutional system of government. Many are advocating
greater centralization of power in the hands of the federal
government at the expense of federalism and diminished
constitutional liberties in defiance of the Bill of Rights.
The constitutional republic of our Founding Father is not an
anachronism. If the federal government were to abstain from the
activities not authorized by the Constitution and rededicate itself
to its constitutionally delegated functions, we would in fact be
more secure and more able to respond to this national campaign
of terror.
The primary obligation of the federal government under the
Constitution is to provide for the common defense. This is why
the Framers empowered Congress to raise up armies and naval
forces, rather than armies of welfare state bureaucrats. Yet in
recent years, federal military expenditures have represented the
smallest share of the national economy since before Pearl
Harbor. Defense accounts for only 15 percent of federal
spending. While the constitutional responsibility to defend our
people and our borders from invasions and aggression has not
changed, the threats to our republic are vastly different than
George Washington faced. With a globe populated by so many
rogue states and international terrorist organizations, our cities
should not be left vulnerable to a missile attack, necessitating a
comprehensive missile defense program.
The Constitution also charged the federal government with
control of the borders, setting rules for immigration and
naturalization. At least 16 of the 19 hijackers could have possibly
been stopped if adequately punished for their violations of visa
and immigration laws. With 6 to 10 million illegal immigrants
living in the United States and consular offices granting 80
percent of the 8 million visa applications annually, even non-
citizens who share the hostile intentions of terrorist cells linger
within our borders undetected.
The same federal government that was not fulfilling its
constitutional responsibilities for national defense, federal law
enforcement and border controls was actively subverting the
Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. But what
purpose did this serve? Terrorists wielding only box cutters were
able to subdue unarmed Americans. Attacks on our
constitutional right to self-defense have arguably made us more
vulnerable rather than more secure.
This federal government is also spending hundreds of billions of
dollars propping up a constitutionally dubious welfare state that is
a constant drag on our economy. Defenders of these programs
can only pretend these expenditures are somehow justified by
the "general welfare" or "interstate commerce clause," in direct
contradiction of the statements of such Framers as James
Madison on the topic of "benevolent expenditures." As economic
growth slows to a crawl, taxes, spending and regulation need to
be reduced or else the economy will buckle under this strain.
Americans should be free to defend themselves and build nest
eggs for the future with the wealth they create. Rather than hitting
them with new taxation and legislation, the government should do
its duty and target terrorists and aggressors foreign and
domestic.
The fact of the matter is we do not need to dismantle our federal
constitutional republic and replace it with a highly centralized
fortress. The solutions to our economic and national security
problems lie in the government dispensing with the
unconstitutional nonsense it is involved in and focusing on what
the Constitution mandates it do.
W. James Antle III is a senior writer for Enter Stage Right and
can be reached at wjantle@enterstageright.com.
Enter Stage Right - http://www.enterstageright.com